Posting Up With Jenna - Season 2 // Jan. 28, 2010
Senior All-American Jenna Smith catches Illini fans up with her busy life in the newest "Posting Up." This week she talks about heading back to her home state, her busy schedule and getting a new phone.

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Hello Illini fans! Thanks for reading my blog! I love all the support you give our team! A lot has been going on lately so I'll do my best to catch you all up on my life...

Practices
With only 9 games left in our season, the intensity and drive in practice has changed. Everyone has a sense of urgency to pull these last nine games out so we can have a positive ending to our season and hopefully make it to the NCAA tournament. It always has been competitive but now we are more focused to end this losing streak and play the way we are capable of playing.

Treatment
Since hurting my hamstring a few weeks ago it seems like I've been in treatment 24/7! I know one thing though - my body has gotten a lot healthier. Paul Schmidt (our trainer) and I have been spending A LOT of time together! It's a long season and it takes a toll on your body (especially after 4 years!) so all of us in treatment are just trying to stay healthy and strong for the remaining time of the season. We keep Paul and the student trainers busy! I'm so thankful for all the time they put into keeping us ready to play!

Games Coming Up
I am quite excited for these last nine games and then the Big Ten Tournament following that. I feel a good streak coming from us. We need to turn things around tonight against Michigan and then this weekend I am very excited to go home to Minnesota and play there on Sunday. I love seeing the fan support and having my friends and family come out and watch. Some of my teammates are afraid to go to Minnesota because of how cold it will be, but I think it is worse here sometimes because of the wind. I can't wait to see how some people react to it! On Saturday when we get there we'll get some time at the Mall of America. Everyone is excited to go there and shop! It's a great place to shop because of NO TAX! Every time I shop here I usually forget that there is tax here and am surprised by the total when I check out! Hopefully my teammates will have fun there. I hope to spend sometime with my family while we're there since I live so close to the mall. All I know is I can't wait to hear "Welcome to Minneapolis" on the airplane when we land!

Life Now
Life now is very busy. I told you guys in my last blog that I am doing an internship with our Sports Information crew here and it's actually a lot of fun. I did some work archiving old photos and got to look a lot at the history of our sports. I can't believe some of the pictures I saw! In some of them the players had short shorts and high socks on! I mean, I love the high socks because I play in them now, but the short shorts??? I don't know if I could do that! It was fun to see pictures and learn about the past. I also did a CHAT online yesterday and had fun answering all the questions from our fans. One other thing that was cool was when our SID Derek Neal showed me pictures from my freshman year up until to now. I have most certainly changed a lot! I can't believe sometimes how fast it has gone by!

Other than work, treatment and practices, I am still in a couple classes this semester and just trying to finish my degree. I think I am busier now that I actually have to work, hahaha! I am still always figuring out where I can get my nap in so I'm well rested for practice!

Bad Girls Club
Whenever I do find some free time (which isn't often!), the show that I am into now is the Bad Girls Club. Anyone watch? This show cracks me up because some of the women are crazy! The way they handle things is just crazy. I think it's a good lesson on how NOT to react to things! I don't know how I got addicted to it but I did and am thoroughly entertained by it. I also still watch Law & Order Special Victims Unit. Great show.

I Phone
In other news, I have been struggling with my I Phone lately, which for those of you that know me, is a big deal! I cracked my screen and pieces started falling off... haha I know! I dropped it one time and that's when it all happened! So I got a new one the other day (I had to beg my parents) and I didn't have any contacts or games, basically nothing! It was horrible. People would text me and I had no idea who I was talking to. I kept having to ask people "Who is this?" I felt bad, but then after awhile I just carried my old phone with me and kept looking up who was texting me. Finally I went to my friend's the other day and she helped restore my phone, so I'm all good now! I don't know how people got by without these in the past! ☺

Well that's all for this blog! Hope to see everyone tonight at our game! Take care!